Circular-knitting machine.



W..T. BARRATT. 'CIRGULAR KNITTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 21. I916.

Patented Mar. 5, 1918.

5 SHEETS-SHEET I.

W. T. BABRATT.

CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED JULY 21. ms.

Patented Mar. 5, 11918.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

W. T. BARRATT.

CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED IULYZI, I9I6- Patented Mar. 5, 1918 5 SHEETS-SHEET 3- 7 8 6) I I i :1 .54 4 2 Q Q14? 4? 79 I a j I as o o o 175% I JJ 4 8 7 J2 5a 4a W. T. BARRATT. CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 2|, I916. Patented Mar.

5 SHEETSSHEET 4- W. T. BARRATT.

ClRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED JULY 21. I916.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 5- Patented Mar. 5, 1918.

71 t in.

- WILLIAM T. BARRATT, OF BENTNINGTON, VERMONT, ASSIGNOR TO CHARLES S. KEHOE,

ANNIE COOPER, AND ALEXANDER J. COOPER, EXECUTORS OF CHARLES COOPER,

DECEASED, LATE OF BENNINGTON, VERMONT.

CIRCULAR-KNITTING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 5, 191.

Original application filed February 11, 1916, 'Serial No. 77,782. Divided and this application filed July 21,

' 1916. Serial No. 110,608.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM T. BARRATT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bennington, in the county of Bennington and State of Vermont, have invented new and useful Improvements in Circular-Knitting The object of the invention is to increase the production without increasing the size of the machine or the expense of manufacture of the same.

Another object of the invention is to improve the quality of the fabric knit on the knitting machine and to render the machine less liable to accidents, while at the same time simplifying the machine and rendering it easier to operate and requiring a less skilled operator to successfully operate the machine.

One, machine embodying my invention hereinafter described in the specification and set forth in the claims is of that class of machines known as circular rib knitting spring needle machines. Said machine comprises a primary and a secondary needle cylinder with spring needles and a plurality offeeds grouped in series around these cylinders. Heretofore in. machines of this class the number of feeds which it was possible to use in an eighteen inch cylinder machine was six. By means of the improvements hereinafter set forth I am now enabled to use nine feeds on the same size machine, thereby increasing the production for the same size machine fifty per cent.

The invention consists in the combination and arrangements of parts set forth in the following specification and particularly pointed out in the claims thereof.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan view of my improved machine, partly broken away and shown 1n section, the fabric being indicated also in section.

Fig. 2 is a sectional plan of the lower bed plate, nine different feeds being shown diagrammatically thereon.

Fig. 8 is a detail plan illustrating one of the feeds.

Fig. 4 is a plan similar to Fig. 3 with the sinker wheel removed in order to more clearly show the primary and secondary prcssers and partly shown in section.

Fig. 5 is a front elevation of one of the feeds without the needles and partly shown in section.

Fig. 6 is a sectional elevation on a reduced scale on line 66 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 7 is a sectional elevation taken on line 77 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 8 is a sectional elevation taken on line 8-8 of Fig. 3.

Like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

In the drawings, 15 is the frame of the machine. 16 is the main driving shaft which is driven bya clutch pulley 17, said clutch pulley being locked to the shaft 16 by a clutch member 18 which is operated by a stop motion mechanism.

The shaft 16 has fastened thereto a bevel gear 19 which meshes into a bevel gear 20 fast to a verticalshaft 21. The vertical shaft 21 has bearings in the lower bed plate 22 and in an upper bed plate 23 and also in a bracket 24:. The bracket 24 and upper bed plate 23 are supported upon a bracket 25 which is fastened to the frame 15 of the machine. The lower bed plate 22 is supported upon brackets 26 fast to the frame of the machine, Fig. 6.

A lower needle cylinder 27, which constitutes the primary needle cylinder, is fastened to a running ring 28 which is rotatably mounted upon the lower bed plate 22. Said running ring and lower needle cylinder are rotated by an annular gear 29 which is fast to the running ring 28 and is driven by a gear 30 which is fast to the vertical shaft 21. The cylinder 27, running ring 28 and gear-29, while made in separate parts for tened to a running ring 32 which is rotatably mounted in the upper bed plate 23 and has fastened to its upper edge an annular gear 33 which is driven by a gear 34 fastened to the shaft 21. It will be noted that the gear 34 is located above the bed plate 23 and that the gear 30 is located below the bed plate 22, thus leaving the space between the upper and lower bed plates practically free of obstruction except for the vertical shaft 21, so that the instrumentalities forming the feeds on opposite sides, respectively, of the vertical shaft 21 may be brought close thereto if desired.

Plates 35 (Fig. 1) are fastened to the bracket 24 and a ring 36 is fastened to the upper bed plate and projects over the gears 33 and 34. Thus it will be seen that the gears are thoroughly covered to prevent dust, lint, etc., from getting into them and furthermore to prevent the operator from being injured.

In each of the feeds, which are nine in number in this particular embodiment of my invention, there is a rotary sinker wheel 37 which is substantially the same in construction as the'sinker wheel illustrated in my United States Letters Patent No. 917,989. This sinker wheel is rotatably mounted upon a stud 38 which is fastened to a rocker frame 39. The rocker frame 39 is rotatably mounted upon a standard 40 fast to the lower bed plate 22 by means of screws 41 which have screw-threaded engagement with the lower bed plate 22 and project through slots'42 in the standard 40, whereby said standard is rendered adjustable upon the lower bed plate 22. It will be noted that the sinker wheel 37 is eccentric to the axis of the rocker frame 39.

The sinker wheel 37 is provided with sinkers 43 which are slidable radially upon said sinker wheel and between the primary needles 44, movement being imparted to said sinkers by a cam 45. A rotary motion is imparted to the sinker wheel 37 by a gear 46 fast thereto and meshing into the primary needles 44, whereby said gear is .rotated.

When the parts are in the position illustrated in Fig. 3 the sinkers are in operative relation to the needles of the primary cylinder and the sinker wheel is held yieldingly in this position by a spring 47 which bears against an arm 48 which is fast to the rocker frame 39 and holds said arm 48 against a stop 49, with the sinker wheel and its sinkers in operative position relatively to the needles of the primary needle cylinder. When, however, anything happens to prevent the free rotation of the sinker wheel, such as the yarn bunching on the needles or the needles becoming bent, then the sinker wheel is moved in the same general. direction as the portion of the needle cylinder adjacent thereto and the sinkers are moved out of operative position with relation to the needles, this operation being substantially the same as described in my Patent No. 1,003,085.

The primary needles are pressed at the proper time by a presser 50 which is preferably made in one piece with a supporting member 51 (Fig. 4), said supporting member extending outwardly from the needle cylinder at the left hand side of the sinker wheel 37 and terminating in a radially extending rod 52 which is slidably mounted upon a bracket 53 fast to a presser stand 54 which, in turn, is fastened to the circular outer edge of the lower bed plate 22. Said presser 50 is held in yielding engagement with the needles of the primary cylinder by a spring 55 which encircles a rod 56 fast to the bracket 53 and bears at one end against an arm 57 fast to the rod 52 and at the other end against a nut 58.

When the sinker wheel is thrown from operative to inoperative position, it throws the primary presser 50 out of engagement with the needles by rocking a lever 59 which is pivoted at 60 to a bracket 61 fast to the bracket 53. The outer end of said lever 59 bears against the arm 57, so that when said lever is rocked by the sinker wheel being thrown out of operative position it rocks the lever 59 andby means of the arm 57 pushes the rod 52 outwardly, thus removing the pressure of the primary presser 50 fromthe primary needles.

The secondary presser 62 is disk-shaped and is rotatably mounted upon a stud 63 which has a hub 64 (Fig. 8) and said hub is clamped to a rod 65 which thus forms a supporting member for the secondary presser. The rod 65 is slidably mounted in a bracket 66 which is pivoted at 67 to a vertically disposed rod 68 which has screwthreaded engagement with a bracket 69, said bracket 69 being fastened to a secondary needle cam bracket 7 0 which has a secondary needle cam 71 fast thereto and which is adjustably fastened to the upper bed plate 23 by means of screws 72 which project through .slots 73 in said needle cam bracket, (Fig. 5).

A support 74 (Figs. 3 and 7) is provided for the primary needles. 'Said support has a foot 75 thereonwhich bears against the backs of the primary needles to take any lateral thrust that may be brought to bear upon said needles when they are in their advanced positions, such, for example, as the lateral thrust brought to bear upon said needles when the thread is fed between the needles by the sinkers. Said support is attached by screws 76 to the secondary needle cam bracket 70, the object of this construction being to provide a means whereby, when the secondary needle cams are adjusted in a circumferential direction relamemes tively to the secondary needle cylinder 31 by means of the screws 72, the needle support for the primary needles will at the same time be adjusted therewith, Thus by one adjustment the needle support and the secondary needle cams are adjusted together. v

Said secondary presser 62 is held against the secondary needles 77 by a spring 7 8 which encircles a rod 7 9 fast to the bracket 66 and bears at one end against an arm 80 and at the other end against a nut-81 having screw-threaded engagement with the rod 79. The arm 80 is provided with a stop-screw 82 adapted to abut against the bracket 66 to limit the distance to which the presser 62 can be inoved'inwardly by the spring 78.

It will be noted that said secondary presser 62 is mounted upon and adjustable with the secondary needle cam bracket 70, the supporting member 65 for said secondary presser extending radially outward from the needle cylinders and that the stud 38 of the sinker wheel of its respective feed is located between said member 65 and the supporting member 51 for the primary presser. It will be noted that a portion of both the primary presser and of the secondary presser is located beneath the sinker wheel 37, thus enabling the two pressers and the sinker wheel to occupy a comparatively small space upon the lower bed plate. When it is desired to adjust said rotary presser 62 in a direction tangential to the needles of the secondary cylinder, it may be done by loosening the set-nut 83 and rotating the rod 68 until said presser 62 has been moved to the desired position. The rod 68 and said presser are then locked in position by means of the lock-nut 83.

The needles 77 of the secondary cylinder are held in the tricks in the usual manner by springs 84 which encircle the secondary cylinder, and these springs are placed in such a position relatively to the needle jacks 85 and to the lower edge of the secondary cylinder and to the gear 46 that when the needles 77 are in their most advanced position the jacks 85 will abut against the upper spring 84 and at that time the lower end of the needles will be located above or will clear the gear 46. Tn machinesof this class as heretofore constructed it might happen, due to the carelessness of the operator, that some of the secondary needles were left too far down so that their lower ends would engage the gear 46, and it would cause trouble lide with the gear 46. In other cases, when "a press ofl' occurs and the tension 6f the yarn on the needles is removed, the needles of their ownvolition will slide down in the tricks far enough to engage the gear 46. In

order to overcome these difficulties a guard cam has been employed for each feed which pushed the secondary needles up in their tricks to a sufiicient extent to clear the gear 46 before they could engage it. To eliminate these difliculties and particularly to do away with the guard cams in my improved machine I have so proportioned the parts and arranged them relatively to each-other that the needles 77 cannot be moved downwardly to a sufficient extent so that they can collide with the gear 46. Before this could happen the jack 85 engages the spring, 84, and prevents the needles from descending to such an extent as to engage the said gear 46.

The general operation of the mechanism and of the devices hereinbefore specifically described is as follows: The needle cylinders 27 and 31 are rotated counterclockwise by the gears 30 and 34 as hereinbefore described.

Tt will be noted that by the relative arrangement of the gears 34 and 33 and 29 and 30 a clear space is left between the upper and lower bed plates adjacent to the vertical shaft 21, so that the needle cams of the upper and lower cylinders and the different instrumentalities connected with the feeds, as, for example, the pressers and sinker wheels, can be placed near said shaft and thus enable a greater number of feeds to be introcovering the same secures absolute freedom from danger of injury to the operatives and also prevents lint, dust and dirt from getting into the gears 34 and 33. Moreover the space is rendered free from obstructions so that it is easy to get at the feeds and needles adjacent to the vertical shaft39 on opposite sides thereof.

The advantages of the construction will be apparent in this regard by reference to Fig. 6. It is very important in a machine of this class to be able to get at the different feeds and needles and to see the difi'erent parts so justments so that everything that makes for simplicity and for compact arrangement of the different parts is a great improvement to the machine from a practical point of View.

Ttwill be understood that by carrying the support for the presser for the primary needles outwardly from the needle cylinder at the left of the sinker wheel Fig. 4, the

sinker wheel will be left free to be moved out of operative position without colliding as to detect any imperfections and poor adwhen the machine is first started or when with said support. Also by setting the secondary presser at substantially the same anin said figure comes very close to the shaft 21. As a matter of fact the placing of thegear 34 above the bed plate 23 enables an extra feed to be put into the machine. It will also be noted that between the feeds A and B in said'Fig. 2 there is considerable space. This space is for the purpose of enabling the operator to put the work on the needles there has been a press off. The larger this space is made the more convenient itis for the operator.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire by Letters Patent to secure is: I

1. A circular knitting machine having, in

combination, an upper and a lower needle cylinder, a presser for the needles of said upper cylinder, a bracket upon which said presser is mounted, a vertically disposed stud upon which'said bracket-is pivotally mounted, a stationary member with which a said stud has screw-threaded engagement, and means to lock said stud to said member.

7 2. A circular knitting machine having, in combination, an upper and a. lower needle cylinder, a-sinker wheel with sinkersconstructed and arranged to feed yarn to the needles of said" lower cylinder and a rotary .presserfon the needles of said upper cylinderadjacent to and projecting downwardly away from the needlesof said upper cylin der and beneath said sinker wheel.

3. A circular knitting machine having, in

.COIIlblIlfllZlOIl, an upper and a lower needle cylinder, a sinker wheel with sinkers constructed and arranged tofeed yarn to the needles of said lower cylinder and a rotary presser for the needles of said upper cylinder, said sinker wheel and rotary presser each being arranged to project downwardly away from said needles of said lower cylinder, said presser being located adjacent to and projecting beneath said sinker wheel.

4. A circular knitting machine having, in combination,- an upper and a lower needle cylinder, a sinker wheel with sinkers constructed and arranged to feed yarn to the needles of said lower cylinder and a rotary @presser for the needles of said upper cylinmesses der, said sinker wheel and rotary presser each being arranged to project away from the needles of said cylinder at substantially .the same angle, said rotary presser being located adjacent to and projecting beneath said sinker wheel.

5. A circular knitting machlne having, in combinatlon, a primary and a secondary needle carrier with needles thereon, a sinker wheel equipped withsinker blades, a stud upon which said sinker wheel is rotatably mounted, a presser for the primary needles, a presser for the secondary needles, :1 portion of each of'said pressers being located beneath said sinker wheel, and a supporting member for each'of said pressers extending outwardly from said needle cylinders, said sinker wheel stud being located therebetween.

6. A circular knitting machine havin in combination, a primary and a secon ary needle cylinder, a gear located above and fast-to said secondary needle cylinder, a bed plate upon which said secondary cylinder and gear are rotatablymounted, a driving gear meshing with said gear, a vertical shaft to which said driving gear is fastened,

two needle cams and two sets of yarn feedinginstrumentalities located in close proximity to and upon opposite sides of said vertical shaft, each of said instrumentalities embodying a rotary sinker wheel and a rotary presser for said needles interposed between said rotary sinker wheels projecting downwardly from the needles of said secondary needle cylinder and beneath one of said sinker wheels.

7. A circular knitting machine having, in

combination, a primary and a secondary needle cylinder, a gear located above and fast to said secondary needle cylinder, a bed plate upon which .said secondarycylinder and gear are rotatably mounted, a driving gear meshing with said gear, a vertical shaft to which said driving gear is fastened, two needle cams, two brackets to which said needle cams are fastened and two sets of yarn feeding instrumentalities located in close proximity to and upon opposite sides of said vertical shaft, each of said yarn feeding instrumentalities embodying a rotary sinker wheel, and a rotary presser for said needles interposed between said rotary sinker wheels supported upon one of said needle cam brackets and projecting downwardly from the needles of said secondary cylinder and beneath one of said sinker wheels.

8. A knitting machine having, in combination, a primary needle cylinder with needles, a secondary needle cylinder with needles, a bed-plate upon which said secondary needlecvlinder is rotatably mounted. a needle cam for said secondary needles, a bracket to which said needle cam is fastened, means mamas to adjustably fasten said bracket to said bed-plate, and a needle support fast to said needle cam bracket and arranged to'bear against the backs of said primary needles when they are in their advanced position.

9. A knitting machine having, in combi nation, a rotary needle cylinder with needles, a bed-plate having a circular outer edge upon which said needle cylinder is rotatably mounted, a presser for said needles, and a support for said presser adjustable circumferentially about said outer edge of said bed-.

plate. 10. A circular knltting machine having, in combinatlon, an upper and a lower needle cylinder, a, presser for the needles of said upper cylinder, a bracket upon which said presser is mounted, a vertically disposed stud upon Which said bracket is pivotally mounted and a stationary member with 20 nesses.

WILLIAM T. BARRATT.

Witnesses:

CHARLES S. KEHOE, ANNA M. KEEFE. 

